I have a very myopic family. I will not say it's heredity because my father has had perfect vision. Now he's 65 and has reading glasses. My mother is slightly myopic but can function very well without glasses. Her contact prescription is less than -4.00. My sisters and I on the other hand are extremely myopic. I used to have a contact prescription of -10.00 and -10.5. One time the doctor was even about to give me a -11.00 prescription but I refused. (For glasses that prescription is almost -13.00.) I think one doctor said I could see about 20/1000 or 20/2000. My vision was so bad he didn't properly know. And, yes that is thousand. One of my sisters has roughly the same prescription as I did. Two other sisters have about -8.00 for contacts while one has about -6.00. We were all bookworms but us two with the highest prescription have abused our eyes a lot I can say, reading for hours at a time, well into the night, etc. What would the doctors say? "That's the way your eyeball is shaped", or "it's in your genes."
I first started vision therapy about 4-5 years ago. Probably 2003. I didn't know about zennioptical until last dec, and had to function with contacts. Hopefully, now I will be able to do some proper vision therapy. I now wear glasses with a prescription of -8.5 and -9.00. My contact prescription is -7.5 and -8.00 with which I have started to see 20/20. I have recently stopped wearing contacts and am seeing a big improvement. But the problem with such a high prescription is that I cannot do any computer work without my glasses. I really don't need to use a computer, but sometimes the need arises (like now.)
My real question is that I now need a lower prescription for glassess. Would it be ok to go .5 diopter down for both eyes? I'm going to be ordering a couple glasses together so please help. Thank you for this great website.
When I was wearing -8 and -9 I went down by .5 at a time, having several pairs of glasses in my car of different strengths, each carefully labeled. You may find you go down more quickly than you expect, then get stuck -- time to do some more Bates work! It's deceptive to think you can just reduce your prescription and not change your habits of looking, and still improve: not so! Pay attention to how your eyes feel and whether you're straining. Good for you for reversing the family "legacy" for yourself.
Thank you Nancy. How is your vision at this point? I tried looking in your previous posts but couldn't find anything.
Has anyone seen the website preventmyopia.com by Donald Rehm? He has a number of websites on myopia. He suggests getting +3.00 glasses for children to prevent myopia. It seemed like a good idea so I got a pair for my daughter who is 6 years old. Does anyone know if it works because having your child wear glasses before she reads is a lot easier than doing the Bates method or any other method. We homeschool so it's easier to monitor her whenever she reads which she does quite frequently. She seems to be able to see perfectly fine, but with an eye chart she sees about 20/60. Fortunately since we homeschool we do not have to have her eyes checked by a doctor. In our state it is now mandatory to have your child's eyes checked before kindergarten, and of course the school nurse checks them too. I just hope our children eyes don't follow our path as my husband is also myopic, but not as much as I am.
First, my opinion is that you should give the Bates method a chance with your daughter (as described below), but I can't help but also strongly suggest if you are going to do the plus lens therapy then do it on the advice of an opthalmologist. Some cousins of mine had distance glasses for seeing far and plus glasses for reading. Now in adulthood, only 1 of 3 needs glasses. So it can work under the supervision of an OD that has experience seeing it work. I wouldn't just guess on the strength nor taken any recommendations from anyone who hasn't examined your daughter's eyes. Nor would I buy any such glasses from an OD who can't testify that he has patients that ended up in their 20s without needing ANY glasses. Be specific, do they just end up just being farsighted? that's not better than being nearsighted.
To show you that it's not so simple as just going out and getting +3 glasses for her, consider the following:
If she is myopic already, it could be that her prescription would be, for example, -2 diopters. A +3 diopter lens, then, would in fact, for her eyes be like a person with normal sight wearing +5 lenses. A plus three lens for someone with a prescription of -2 is then +1. Besides that complication of not knowing her actual prescription, it is complicated by other things - eyesight varies a lot. It can vary under pressure, when ill, at different times of the day. Glasses fix the eyes to a certain diopter that may or may not be representative most of the time. It is also possible that she is not using her eyes properly together. In this case plus lenses won't help either, the Bates method is very successful in such cases.
Considering the above complications, why not learn the Bates method with her instead of trying so hard to prevent glasses by wearing glasses? You mentioned: "Does anyone know if it works because having your child wear glasses before she reads is a lot easier than doing the Bates method or any other method." To me, it seems like learning the Bates method with the help of an experienced teacher over the course of 6-8 weeks is much easier than fiddling with glasses prescriptions for the next 12 years. And that 6-8 weeks would be only a commitment on your part of studying the Bates method for about 1hour per week, and doing some short activities with your daughter on a daily basis.
The Bates method is easy. Pay an experienced teacher (in your area or get Esther from visions of joy to do corrrespondence lessons) to help you and you will learn such basic things that can help your daughter right now. Things like how to pay attention in a way that doesn't cause strain her body. No plus lenses will help her with that. The things I have learned help me immensely to carry out my studies. I suggest Esther at visionsofjoy.com for two reasons: 1. she has many testimonials documented on her website from parents who have helped their children through Esther's advice. and 2. Nancy, who responded to you earlier, has highly recommended Esther's correspondence course.
Clearly, if you are home schooling your daughter you are very committed to spending time teaching her. In this case, teach her something I wish someone had taught me at that age: how to use my eyes and body without strain. Dr. Bates often wrote that teaching a child is very easy. I am having great success with the method even while working towards my PhD. I would even go so far as to say what I have learned through the Bates method has made my studies easier.
Hi -- you asked about my vision now. It's not 20/20 unless I'm very relaxed and in the sunshine (putting the snellen in my front yard). I'd say on average it's about 20/50 or 20/60 which allows me to function and drive in familiar areas. I've been reducing my prescription for about 9 years now (I started at -10 with astigmatism of -1.75 and wore that for almost 35 years, getting glasses originally at age 5.) I've been doing Bates work for a few years, dedicated chart work and palming and swinging and paying attention to shifting and central fixation.
I agree with Sorrisi that learning how to pay attention without straining is key to improving eyesight, and the culture will teach you the opposite, that you have to strain to accomplish anything, without you even being aware that this isn't a "fact". Perhaps one of the best things you can do for your child is to learn the Bates method yourself and start to improve your own eyesight, so she has a good example to follow. Children often become myopic by imitating the habits of myopic parents, not because of genetics. (I never saw my mother's eyes, even as an infant, except when they were behind her glasses.)
Sorrisi's recommendation of Esther's correspondence course is worth looking into. I helped her edit this when she created it several years ago, when she was still on the east coast before she moved to CA. At a minimum check out her website http://www.visionsofjoy.org/ which has a lot of good information, and start educating yourself about the Bates method. It might be a lot of fun for you and your daughter to learn together. I wish my Mom had done this for me, and herself, when I was a child. Good luck -- you'll find lots of support here if you have questions.
Thank you Nancy and Sorrisi for your detailed replies. It's very encouraging to know that both of you are now able to see so much better. I hope that I can keep up with this. Like many holistic remedies the Bates method requires a change in lifestyle. (That's what I think at least.)
When I first learned about the Bates method I was unable to find any doctors who would lower my prescription for me. So now I'm kind of reluctant to take my daughter to an eye doctor because I might just end up wasting my money. Although I might not take my daughter to a doctor, I strongly recommended my sister to take my niece who is 6 to a behavioral optometrist. (She was not seeing properly.) They were going to take her to a doctor anyways. So she was prescribed bifocals by the optometrist. But when her uncle learned about the bifocals, (he is an ophthalmologist), he was very disbelieving and skeptical. According to him optometrists are not real doctors and are not qualified enough. Unlike him I strongly believe that doctors do not know everything. If they did we wouldn't be having such a high prevalence of myopia!!
I had contacted Kate Keilman from visioneducators.org about three years ago and she responded to a lot of my inquiries. She had told me to stop wearing glasses (whenever possible) and to blink, breath and sketch. So finally after almost 3 years I have gotten a pair of glasses and am seeing some improvement. (Without glasses as a backup I had to wear contacts and contacts cannot be taken off about 20 times an hour which I can easily do with glasses.) I am now seeing lots of flashes. They don't last too long but I feel as if I'm on the right track. As per your suggestions I'll try doing the Bates method also. Hopefully I'll be able to teach it to my daughter also.
(That's what I think at least.) 